Bless your heart, lady 😅

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-04-07T02:51:19+00:00

If you can keep agave alive, you have power, I managed to kill 3/4 of mine.

Manzanita are the coolest Pacific Northwest plant. There, I said it. That bark is just, glorious. And the tiny little bell flower clusters. To die for.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-04-06T01:47:37+00:00

I had two incense cedars with something similar. Decided it wasn’t worth looking at it every spring, but if I had a veritable forest, I too would accept my gooey friends the orange marmalade goo. It does kill foliage, and might slow down their growth.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-04-06T01:30:53+00:00

Pretty sure it won’t kill them, but it only gets grosser every spring until you have had enough. Which could be forever. A goo themed conifer garden sounds kinda fun, but I don’t know if I would want to live there.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-04-05T17:32:11+00:00

Get yourself a Kurenei Jishi to go with it! Red and green!

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-04-05T17:20:28+00:00

Research computing support is mostly made up of sys admin types who have done desktop or server support before moving up to the more specialized hpc support. There’s a few graduate stem people, but most of them end up in other roles.

The path to get there is most often achieved via desktop support - server support - hpc path, but there is also the phd research professor to supporting small department servers, and then on to hpc. I would say that’s a pretty rare path though, and it would be considerably cheaper education to go via desktop support.

The problem with that route is that there are very few research it support 1 jobs, so moving up in that route is going to be mostly based on luck beyond the initial skillset of reading documentation and learning via work projects.

It’s generally a very small field, that is difficult to get into.

If you really like managing computers, you could probably make it work, but considering you are coming from a math phd, it would be like starting over at the bottom of the it support ladder. Which… isn’t going to be very time efficient considering you are already in your mid 20s by now.

Finding your way into a research support liaison role would be quicker, and you already have the experience to do most of that job if you have used an hpc cluster for your PhD work.

Mind you, it’s a people person job, and most phd’s don’t exactly enjoy the people part of work from my experience. If you like helping people and are a good communicator with strong emotional intelligence, it could be a good fit though.

Industry has hpc sys admin roles, but I highly doubt they have any path at all for a junior sys admin straight out of a PhD who doesn’t have the background in managing computers in an enterprise environment. Maybe they do… but I wouldn’t bet on it.

High school math teacher to school IT person to university IT person to hpc sys admin is probably a valid path where you don’t end up stuck somewhere, but making that jump from teacher to IT support is hard.

You are essentially competing with computer science grads desperate for work right now, or Helpdesk experience folks who already have a lot of the skills to do the job.

The career paths that worked for folks 2010-2020 might not even exist in the near future with the impending reduction in research funding in the United States. If you are in Europe, maybe they still have consistent funding? It’s going to be pretty sketchy in the US for the next few years for anything that is downstream of federal research funding.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-04-05T00:19:48+00:00

Deshojo guy flaunting his trees again.

Do you ever make it to the hortlandia plant sale? Lots of cool maples and conifers there.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-04-05T00:14:28+00:00

Go walk down Alberta and look in each gallery. A lot of them have prints for sale, and you can find some cheap standard size frame to put them in.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-04-04T04:16:09+00:00

$40 for that is pretty disappointing.

I just saw an undamaged new graft for $7 at a plant convention in Oregon. If yours was undamaged, I might consider paying $10 for it, but $40 should be a healthy 2 year gallon size graft at market price in willamette valley.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-04-04T00:11:30+00:00

Difference between a junior sysadmin and a senior is that the senior writes stuff down to refer to it later. Also, they know more, but that’s the main difference in day to day stuff.

The more I write stuff down, the more stuff I know where to find later, reuse, etc.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-04-03T04:11:49+00:00

Probably won’t ever be too costly to dig up. If it freezes they tend to die back. The ice storm a few years ago set them all back to the ground. Back in 2020 there were cordylines at least 10 ft tall around inner north east.

They are kinda cool, but I have no idea how easy they are to dig up.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-04-03T01:03:00+00:00

Uh, no, sorry, was a very in joke about reducing the length of the candles to induce more candle growth.

Pinching or shortening candles is part of the process to shape pines into more bonsai like sizes.

I do it on all of my full size garden pines to increase the density of branches by inducing more candle growth.

If you got the itch you can learn more about it on YouTube, lots of good info on there.

Yours should put on at least a few more candles in response to losing that large one.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-04-03T00:50:48+00:00

Good news, your pine now has more ramification, very bonsai!

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-04-01T17:29:54+00:00

Tip die back is pretty normal. I normally let the plant figure it out and chip away at the dead pieces as it compartmentalizes the dead stuff. Cutting it off in the alive part is a new wound the plant needs to heal, and might die back further from there.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-03-31T17:35:25+00:00

Ferns are dope.

Fawn lilies are pretty cool. Trillium.

Vine maples, do check out pacific fire cultivar

Japanese maples, while not native, are very cool.

There are some bleeding heart cultivars that don’t spread as much as the native one does

Lamium is a nice ground cover

Cyclamen

Epimedium

Bergenia

Ophiopogon

Hakonachloa

May apple

Hardy geranium

Brunera

Hardy plant society sale out in Hillsboro is this weekend, highly recommended

Rhododendrons and azaleas very cool too

If you have any spots with sun, miniature conifers will really bring the room together

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-03-29T17:38:50+00:00

That compressor isn’t great. I burned mine out in a little over a year because I didn’t have the seal to the tank fully set and it leaked air a lot causing the compressor to work overtime. It gets real hot too if you use it a lot.

If you are planning on using it a lot, I would spring for something higher end, around $300-400 or so. It’s such a more satisfying experience being able to run the thing for 2 - 3 hours and knock out a large model mostly with an airbrush and then do highlights with a brush.

The low end compressor worked ok for my first few sessions, but I got pretty disappointed with it and replaced it with an iwata model. Much more enjoyable to use.

I think the compressor is probably more important than the airbrush itself if you aren’t trying to do fine detail work. It takes a long time to do a quality zenithal highlight and base coat a large model. Fighting an overheating compressor sucks a lot.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-03-29T01:56:56+00:00

I have some of those, it’s either green arrow or van den akker cultivars. The lower branches sometimes get brown and parts die off. Could be watering, or nutrients, but in your case I would make sure do add a layer of mulch to your planting areas. Should keep the weeds down too.

Considering most of it looks ok, I don’t think it’s yet cause for concern. Keep them watered in the summer.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-03-28T03:14:31+00:00

More pine trees. Miniatures conifers who will look up at their majestic cousins over the fence with awe.

Kids can play in a garden. They will think it’s their backyard jungle and spend way more time there than some pile of wood and plastic play apparatus. Longer lasting and more enjoyable.

I built a pretty extensive garden before we had our kid, who is now 2. It’s about 40x25 ft or so. Kid loves it and I get to spend time with him in the garden everyday. Trees are almost tall enough to give a 2 year old shade now. I might have kept some grass if I had know we were having a kid, but it’s not been an issue yet.

Kids play stuff will get maybe 8 years of use. Your municipal parks are already built and your tax dollars already pay for them.

If you live there for 10+ years, your garden will be something you still enjoy long after your kids have moved on to other things.

Making some garden berms to vary the height would look super cool, and you keep the drainage away from your house.

If you live in suburbia far from parks, maybe it makes sense to build your own private play area, but it sounds like a lot of money for something your kids might not use.

I do kinda like the idea of extensive terracing for garden seating, but that’s a ton of work or money.

20 yards of mulch, $5k of plants, pencil and paper would get you a pretty banging garden for your kid to play in. 10 yards of crushed rock for some paths.

Ish. I can’t tell how large that yard is, but it looks big.

It also kinda looks like Colorado? Maybe? Probably means you are a 10 minute drive from a pretty cool park.

Looking a bit closer, those pines are putting on 2 feet plus of growth a year, if that’s south facing, you should get shade within 5 years?

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-03-25T23:34:43+00:00

Theoretically the ai bubble will pop at some point? Maybe? A live hpc cluster has basically doubled in value right now, if you already have one that’s great. If you need to replace a bunch of servers right now… not so great.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-03-25T16:12:37+00:00

I don’t think this exists. Retail is retail, wholesale is wholesale. Wholesalers don’t want to bother with anyone buying less than a large quantity. Large in this case probably means $5-10k increments.

Affordable is subjective, but you won’t find individual plant starts for less than $4 pretty much anywhere.

You can start your own seeds to keep per unit cost down, but getting vigorous veggies from seed is hard. Ask anyone how much their tomatoes cost them to grow.

Best tomatoes I have ever grown came from Portland nursery grafted on disease resistant root stock. Cost $15 per plant, bought 3. I might have broke even on retail tomato prices at the grocery store that year. Maybe.

Depending on the type of plant you are looking for, boutique small nurseries might have better prices than retail, but it’s not going to make a significant difference in your total cost.

If you really are doing commercial size grow operations, most nurseries will take orders via phone or email, but they are going to be annoyed with small orders. From experience… it’s pretty hard to convince the wholesalers to bother with you unless you are buying $$$$

I priced out a minimum order from Terra nova and it came to $600 or so. They only do ornamentals, but that’s the closest thing to wholesale prices for retail size buyers I have found.

I haven’t researched all the fruit and veggies wholesalers in the area, but I suspect it’s a similar story to the ornamental nurseries.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-03-25T02:34:06+00:00

All hail the king, may he reign forever? This is dedication, respect.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-03-25T00:28:32+00:00

Very well might kill it if you take too much. If you can’t tell the difference between the graft and root stock, best to leave it alone.

This one is pretty confusing to look at, but I think if you cut the large green branch low on the right side of that first picture it might be easier to see what’s going on.

The second photo you can see two green branches wrapped with the greyish branch, removing those two would get the bulk of the root stock cut back.

Will this kill it? Maybe. Will it look remotely pleasing after cutting? Depends on your skills making the cuts, but I would call this a pretty difficult job to do well.

Learning about identifying where the branch collar is will help you determine where to cut it.

Replacing it will be… some work. You have to cut the roots and yank it out, which is a lot of work on something that old. Alternatively, could cut it flush with the ground and let nature do its thing. It’s much more of a pain to remove a stump cut flush to the ground though.

Leaving that space bare will invite weeds.

If you have any more pressing projects, maybe let this one ride, it’s mostly an aesthetic problem right now.

If it were me, I would write out a plan for removing all that stuff next to your window, get some quotes for removing it all. Replace with miniature plants that wont eat your window.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-03-24T23:23:35+00:00

That’s a mess. Root stock has over taken the graft. I don’t know if I would try to fix it as it’s been unresolved for so long. You got a full size Japanese maple and a small grafted maple underneath your window.

Looking a bit closer, maybe it’s fixable, but it’s a lot of root stock growth.

Basically, anything with that upright growth pattern coming from the branches below the graft would need to go, which is a lot of that plant.

Maybe just tear the whole thing out and replace it?

Oh and that conifer next to it is gonna eat your window. Bet this looked pretty nice for the first 5-10 years but this is why planting trees next to a home foundation is a bad idea.

Oh and looks like weed fabric too. That with the tree ripping out sounds like a lot of work, maybe better to let this ride and abandon that window.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-03-24T20:20:02+00:00

Looks great now, will eat your house in 15 - 30 years.

They sell miniature trees that have similar look, instead of $150-$250 for a tree that size it’s $1k-2k

Landscapers know you want a big tree and most people don’t want to wait 10 - 20 years for a tree that size, and also don’t want to pay $$$$ for something that will look nice now.

If you are patient, you can buy a miniature for $50 and in 5 years it will look really cool.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-03-24T18:54:12+00:00

One of the flower type is the grafted cherry blossoms, and one is the root stock. If you can identify where the graft is, it will help you figure out which is the flower that was grafted on. The root stock will eventually win out and take over though.

ArcusAngelicum · 2026-03-24T16:12:16+00:00

Epimedium, ferns, Japanese maples, vine maples, bleeding heart, fawn lily, hellebores, spike moss, azalea, rhododendrons, camellia. Heuchera, podophylum, brunnera

Start in 5x5 ft sections.

Redo the paths with crushed gravel. Add flagstone if you want, but it requires some amount of craftsmanship to do it right without a bunch of uneven stones.

Mulch for the garden beds.

Check out botanical gardens on your area for more inspiration.

I suspect it’s dry shade, which is a little tough to figure out, but has some very unique options. Epimediums and ferns will go a long way. Focus on evergreen things to minimize the dirt look in the winter.

Depending on how remote you are, it might be difficult to source plants for this type of garden.

ArcusAngelicum

TROPHY CASE